Carbonhttp://desmogblog.com/taxonomy/term/6406/all
enCoal Companies Talking Out Both Sides Of Their Mouths When It Comes To Climate Changehttp://desmogblog.com/2015/03/24/coal-companies-talking-out-both-sides-their-mouths-when-it-comes-climate-change
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_231241288.jpg?itok=6k0go7Ig" width="200" height="133" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Peabody Energy, the largest coal company in the U.S., deployed one of the lawyers on its payroll to Congress last week to argue against the Environmental Protection Agency’s new carbon rule.<br /><br />
This is so common that it normally wouldn’t rate a mention, but in this case it happened to be <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/03/20/peabody-coal-lawyer-laurence-tribe-obama-law-professor-testifies-congress-epa-carbon-rule" target="_blank">Obama’s former Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, who now works for Peabody</a> and is critical of the <span class="caps">EPA</span>’s Clean Power Plan, saying it is tantamount to “Burning the Constitution.”<br /><br />
But then, even that ranks pretty low in terms of newsworthiness given that, as a <a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060015376" target="_blank">new analysis by Greenwire</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;"> <span class="caps">E&amp;E</span> reporters Corbin Hiar and Manuel Quiñones </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">puts it, “The highest profile practitioner of targeted climate messaging is Peabody Energy Corp.”</span></p>
<p><br />
The Greenwire analysis shows that many coal companies are, in fact, frequently talking out both sides of their mouths when it comes to climate change, and uses Peabody in particular as a case study of the legal and shareholder risks involved.</p>
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<p><br />
Peabody lodged a number of complaints in the comments it submitted against the Clean Power Plan — comments <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/226168-obamas-law-professor-blasts-epa-climate-rule" target="_blank">Tribe was paid to help write</a> — but Greenwire <a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060015376" target="_blank">summarizes the company’s main arguments</a> to the federal government and to the American public as essentially being that the threat of climate change has been overblown, the science is flawed and we shouldn’t ignore the benefits of global warming.<br /><br />
Peabody is especially disparaging of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s work, which helped inform the <span class="caps">EPA</span>’s plans to lower emissions from power plants, saying it “is deeply flawed and should not be accepted at face value.”<br /><br />
When talking to investors in its most recent 10-K annual performance report as mandated by the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Securities and Exchange Commission, however, Peabody sings a whole different tune, acknowledging <span class="caps">IPCC</span> reports that raise concerns about fossil fuels’ contribution to climate change. “No mention was made of the allegedly unreliable science that underpinned those reports from the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>,” the authors of the Greenwire analysis note. The <span class="caps">SEC</span> began requiring companies to report on material impacts on business operations from climate change in 2010.<br /><br />
Peabody stops short of expressing concern over global warming’s impact on profits, but does cite “increasing government attention” to greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants and other “climate issues” as a risk that “could materially and adversely affect our business.”<br /><br />
This may, even still, seem par for the course for a coal company. “Outside of <span class="caps">SEC</span> filings, companies might feel freer to lobby,” Betty Moy Huber, an expert in environmental law and corporate compliance issues at Davis Polk <span class="amp">&amp;</span> Wardwell <span class="caps">LLP</span>, told Greenwire. “Within an <span class="caps">SEC</span> filing, there is a whole different set of liability standards, and they would be ill-advised to say something that cannot be legally backed up.”<br /><br />
Peabody executives may be simply hedging their bets, but if they think they face no potential consequences for trying to have it both ways on climate change — accusing regulators seeking to rein in emissions from coal plants of overreacting while assuring investors they take climate change seriously and can be relied upon to guide the company through what’s shaping up to be an uncertain future for the entire coal industry — they are wrong.<br /><br />
“That information does not square,” Jim Coburn, a manager at the sustainable investment group Ceres, <a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060015376" target="_blank">told Greenwire</a> in response to Peabody's statements. “That's a real problem for the company because the company is misleading investors in its <span class="caps">SEC</span> filings.”<br /><br />
It’s not just Peabody: Greenwire found other <span class="caps">U.S.</span> companies like Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, and Cloud Peak Energy that oppose climate regulations admit to shareholders that climate change is a legitimate cause for concern. Fittingly, they all focus more on government scrutiny and “tend to steer clear of climate-related infrastructure issues posed by sea-level rise or the potential for increasingly severe natural disasters.”<br /> </p>
<p style="font-size:10px"><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-231241288/stock-photo-coal-mine-electricity-lignite-coal-coal-mine-industry-in-thailand.html?src=351k-b1WrweInAmeob-O7A-1-8" target="_blank">kaiskynet / Shutterstock.com</a></em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/peabody-energy">Peabody Energy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5671">Arch Coal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19965">Alpha Natural Resources</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1169">greenhouse gases</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1908">carbon dioxide</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/20088">Greenwire</a></div></div></div>Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:58:00 +0000Mike Gaworecki9233 at http://desmogblog.comHappy birthday Kyoto! What was it again?http://desmog.uk/2015/02/18/happy-birthday-kyoto-what-was-it-again
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Air_pollution_smoke_rising_from_plant_tower.jpg?itok=kGyHqOEO" width="200" height="131" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><em>Happy Birthday Kyoto Protocol! This week marks the ten year anniversary. Is it a reason to celebrate? <span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Kyoto was our first international agreement to cut emissions, so what can we learn for Paris? <a href="http://roadtoparis.info/2015/02/16/happy-birthday-kyoto-protocol/">asks Alice Bell</a>, writer and researcher on science, technology and the environment.</span></em></p>
<p>The Kyoto Protocol was an iconic international agreement setting targets for countries to cut the emissions of gases that cause climate change. A world first.</p>
<p>It was, unsurprisingly, a bit of a compromise. The targets weren’t as high as China or the Alliance Small Island States wanted, but still stronger than those proposed by Canada and the United States.</p>
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<p>Based on a principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” the protocol puts responsibility on the shoulders of developed countries. The <span class="caps">EU</span>, for example, was expected to cut emissions, but India was not.</p>
<p>Although action was largely to be through national policies, it put in place market-based systems whereby countries could buy and sell their emissions.</p>
<p>In addition to emissions cuts, the Protocol also reaffirms the idea that developed countries should offer both money and technological support to other countries to help deal with the changes in environment caused by climate change we haven’t been able to avoid.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/feb/16/sciencenews.environment">It came into force on February 16, 2005.</a> It’s history stretches a lot further back than that though. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997, and is a development of the principles agreed at the <a href="http://unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/items/6036.php">1992 Rio <span class="caps">UN</span> Earth Summit</a>.</p>
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<p itemprop="headline"><strong>What took us so long?</strong></p>
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<p>To come into force, the Protocol needed to be ratified by at least 55 countries, and that their emissions must account for at least 55% of global emissions.</p>
<p>Most of the countries in the world have signed the Protocol. But signing is relatively easy — a symbol of general support. Ratifying the Protocol, on the other hand, carries obligations. This has proved too tough a challenge for some key players.</p>
<p>In 2001, George W Bush withdrew the <span class="caps">US</span> — which is responsible for around a quarter of world emissions — from the Protocol, claiming it would gravely damage the <span class="caps">US</span> economy and was misguided in not including China and India.</p>
<p>In late 2004, Russia was convinced to join, so a slightly modified idea of the initial Kyoto idealism came into force on February 16, 2005.</p>
<p>Arguably, the birthday isn’t much to celebrate. That it’s only a tenth anniversary — rather than a 15th one, for example — is just yet another example of how slow international action on climate change has been.</p>
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<p itemprop="headline"><strong>What can we learn from Kyoto’s anniversary?</strong></p>
</div>
<p>Kyoto is worth reflecting on this week not just as an interesting bit of history, but what it can teach us about international climate negotiations.</p>
<p>Looking at the slow and troubled history of Kyoto — as well as the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen talks — it’s tempting to write off the whole <span class="caps">UN</span>-based approach to tackling climate change entirely.</p>
<p>But the Paris 2015 deal hopes to take a different approach. Kyoto was always based around different countries making different targets, but Paris will take this further with a process based around a series of pledges. The idea is also that this will be a bit more bottom up than an agreement based on the Kyoto model, or that which failed at Copenhagen.</p>
<p>Known as <a href="http://roadtoparis.info/2014/12/09/indcs-will-help-us-tackle-climate-change/%20">Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (or <span class="caps">INDC</span>s</a>), these pledges will outline the steps each country plans to make to reduce their emissions, as well as adaptation plans, and the support they need from/ provide for other countries.</p>
<p>These pledges might not, overall, be that ambitious. At this stage, the talk is still confidently assuring everyone that we must and can keep within the key limit of <a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2014/12/two-degrees-a-selected-history-of-climate-change-speed-limit/">two degrees global warming</a>. But many analysts agree this target of two degrees will still condemn many parts of the world, and it’s still reasonably likely that we won’t see an agreement that really holds people to it anyway.</p>
<p>But — the defenders of a pledge-based approach argue — we will be able to ratchet up these pledges. We might be starting a lot lower than we need to, but it will offer us a starting point from which more powerful action will happen. In contrast, Kyoto started off reasonably well, but soon hit the stumbling block of the <span class="caps">US</span> withdrawing, and Copenhagen fell before it could even get to that sort of hurdle.</p>
<p>It’s easy to feel rather despondent at this point — we’re just playing into George Bush’s erroneous criticism of Kyoto, we need to just force ourselves to be more ambitious — but equally the apparently softer take of Paris’ pledge-based system might ultimately be its saving. How many people it’ll save — and how many it’ll condemn — is yet to be seen.</p>
<p><em>A <a href="http://roadtoparis.info/2015/02/16/happy-birthday-kyoto-protocol/">version of this post</a> originally appeared on Road to Paris</em></p>
<p>Photo: <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikimedia Commons</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/728">kyoto protocol</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18597">Paris</a></div></div></div>Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:46:02 +0000Guest9110 at http://desmogblog.comSocial Cost Of Carbon Drastically Underestimated: Reporthttp://desmogblog.com/2015/01/19/social-cost-carbon-drastically-underestimated-report
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_173409152.jpg?itok=mfgGibO9" width="200" height="143" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The <span class="caps">U.S.</span> government could be drastically underestimating how much climate change is going to cost us, according to a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2481.html" target="_blank">study</a> published by Stanford researchers in the journal <em>Nature Climate Change</em>.<br /><br />
The researchers concluded that the Obama Administration is using a Social Cost of Carbon estimate that may be just one-sixth of the true cost—and that the true cost is high enough to justify aggressive measures for lowering emissions enough to limit global temperature rise to the 2 degrees Celsius that scientists tell us is the threshold for averting catastrophic climate change.<br /><br />
The Social Cost of Carbon is an official estimate of how much economic damage will be caused per metric ton of carbon emitted into our atmosphere—damages like lower crop yields and higher healthcare costs. It is <a href="http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/EPAactivities/economics/scc.html" target="_blank">used by the <span class="caps">EPA</span> and other federal agencies</a> to calculate the benefits of policies intended to improve energy efficiency, lower emissions, and combat climate change. It is also often used to justify <em>not</em> taking action if the proposed action would cost more than the damage it is intended to mitigate.<br /><br />
The Obama Administration raised its official estimate of the economic cost of a metric ton of <span class="caps">CO</span>2 <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/11/01/refining-estimates-social-cost-carbon" target="_blank">from $21 to $37</a> in November 2013. Even back then, however, many experts <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/social-cost-carbon_n_4953638.html" target="_blank">challenged that estimate</a> as far too low.<br /><br />
According to the team at Stanford, that estimate was <em>way</em> too low—they calculate the true Social Cost of Carbon as <a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/january/emissions-social-costs-011215.html" target="_blank">$220 per metric ton</a>.</p>
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<p><span class="dquo">“</span>The $37 per ton estimate is based on models that assume climate change can not affect the growth rates of the economy,” Frances Moore of Stanford’s School of Earth Sciences told DeSmogBlog. “Our $220 per ton estimate is based on a model that includes possible effects of climate change on economic growth rates. The magnitude of these effects is calibrated to recent empirical results that find a statistical relationship between warmer temperatures and slower growth.”<br /><br />
While it may seem obvious that higher global temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and all of the other <a href="http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/" target="_blank">impacts of climate change</a> could hinder economic growth, Moore says that until now there has not been enough empirical evidence for it to be factored into the integrated assessment models used to arrive at current estimates.<br /><br />
But recent studies have found a link between global temperatures and economic growth rates and a connection between tropical cyclones and slower economic growth, providing Moore and her team with the empirical evidence they needed to recalculate the amount of economic damage a ton of carbon will be responsible for.<br /><br />
“If climate change affects not only a country's economic output but also its growth, then that has a permanent effect that accumulates over time, leading to a much higher social cost of carbon,” Moore <a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/january/emissions-social-costs-011215.html" target="_blank">said in a press release</a>.<br /><br />
It’s well known that climate change is impacting many of the world’s developing countries first and most severely. Moore’s co-author, Delavane Diaz of Stanford’s School of Engineering, says that the more accurate Social Cost of Carbon she and Moore have estimated could help policymakers in those countries determine the best response.<br /><br />
“If poor countries become less vulnerable to climate change as they become richer, then delaying some emissions reductions until they are more fully developed may in fact be the best policy,” Diaz <a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/january/emissions-social-costs-011215.html" target="_blank">said</a>. “Our model shows that this is a major uncertainty in mitigation policy, and one not explored much in previous work.”<br /><br />
Diaz also says that the higher cost of carbon could be used to increase efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions in other countries that use a Social Cost of Carbon, including Canada, Mexico, the <span class="caps">UK</span>, France, Germany, and Norway.<br /><br />
“If the social cost of carbon is higher, many more mitigation measures will pass a cost-benefit analysis. Because carbon emissions are so harmful to society, even costly means of reducing emissions would be worthwhile.”<br /> </p>
<p style="font-size:9px"><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-173409152/stock-photo-factory-smokestack-st-petersburg-russia.html?src=llxceRjiO2Ocw_3_V4Ih2w-1-9" target="_blank">Popova Valeriya / Shutterstock.com</a></em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/17160">social cost of carbon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1298">stanford</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5648">Report</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3833">Climate</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2207">sea level rise</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3844">Obama administration</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2274">greenhouse gas emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1221">CO2</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div></div></div>Mon, 19 Jan 2015 19:46:06 +0000Mike Gaworecki8988 at http://desmogblog.comDeSmogCAST 7: Obama's Keystone Veto, U.S. Oil Exports and the World's Unburnable Carbonhttp://desmogblog.com/2015/01/12/desmogcast-7-obama-s-keystone-veto-u-s-oil-exports-and-world-s-unburnable-carbon
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/desmogcast%207%20image.jpg?itok=jKTAAR7e" width="200" height="135" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>In this episode of DeSmogCAST our team discusses <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/06/white-house-confirms-obama-veto-transcanada-s-keystone-xl-pipeline">Obama's recent promise to veto legislation</a> put forward by a Republican-led Congress to <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/09/new-senate-majority-puts-keystone-xl-top-do-list">expedite construction of the Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> pipeline</a>. While the fate of Keystone remains uncertain, the Obama Administration made changes in the final days of 2014 that now allows for the export of <span class="caps">U.S.</span> crude oil. As Justin Mikulka reports, the change doesn't lie in a newly passed bill but rather in a language game used to mask the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/09/happy-new-year-oil-industry-obama-admin-quietly-allows-light-oil-exports">difference between crude oil and condensate</a>. </p>
<p>Finally we take a look at a new study recently published in <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/nature14016.epdf?referrer_access_token=oPqlchrx2WY7zpMARFrd1NRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MEzzy4wDRQte5fViQxiPJjJIfgcjxiQpfQtqwAkMQY0Ns9wI3nnYc_Y60Jg9ntAY3X5WixGEfRCr85QSHSdoSm">Nature</a> that analyzes the globe's total carbon reserves and pinpoints those that must remain unburned if we are to stay within the 2 degrees Celsius warming limit recommended by scientists and policy makers. That <a href="http://www.desmog.ca/2015/01/07/development-oilsands-incompatible-2c-global-warming-limit-new-study">study highlights the Canadian oilsands</a> and almost all coal reserves in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> as carbon deposits that must remain in the ground in a carbon-constrained future.</p>
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See below for articles mentioned in this episode:</div>
<div style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div>
<p style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:16px;"><strong><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/06/white-house-confirms-obama-veto-transcanada-s-keystone-xl-pipeline">White House Confirms Obama Will Veto TransCanada's Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> Pipeline</a></strong></span></p>
<h4>
<strong><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/09/new-senate-majority-puts-keystone-xl-top-do-list">New Senate Majority Puts Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> At The Top Of To-Do List </a></strong></h4>
<h4>
<strong><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/09/happy-new-year-oil-industry-obama-admin-quietly-allows-light-oil-exports">Obama Admin's Year-End Gift to the Oil Industry Quietly Allows Light Oil Exports</a></strong></h4>
<h4>
<strong><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/2015/01/07/development-oilsands-incompatible-2c-global-warming-limit-new-study">Development of Oilsands Incompatible with 2C Global Warming Limit: New Study</a></strong></h4>
<p><span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And in case you missed it on our </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC27KdqL8GCxqXgurmGpkb7g" style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; color: rgb(216, 27, 34); line-height: 1.5em;" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog Youtube page</a><span style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 20px;">, here's episode 6 of DeSmogCAST where we talk about the influence of the fossil fuel industry in international climate talks and what you didn't hear about the New York fracking ban.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 13.3333339691162px; letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="309" src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/s7LuIvvCE64?rel=0" width="550"></iframe></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18718">DeSmogCAST</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2702">obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5857">Keystone XL</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2738">oilsands</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9364">Oil Exports</a></div></div></div>Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:26:37 +0000Carol Linnitt8978 at http://desmogblog.comClimate Legacy: Report Offers Stark Reminder Why Fossil Fuel Industry Is So Intent To Avoid Accountability For Pollutionhttp://desmogblog.com/2014/12/15/climate-legacy-report-offers-stark-reminder-why-fossil-fuels-blocking-accountability
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_229279987.jpg?itok=N8unXG2U" width="200" height="125" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>If the governments of the world get serious about tackling climate change and adopt aggressive limits on global warming emissions, many fossil fuel companies’ could see their <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/09/23/investors-waking-risks-stranded-assets-and-realities-shale-bubble" target="_blank">assets become stranded</a>, forcing them to fundamentally change their business models or go out of business altogether.<br /><br />
But there’s another reason why those companies are so desperate to forestall any and all attempts to rein in climate emissions by holding polluters accountable: fossil fuels companies themselves are responsible for a massive amount of the greenhouse gases cooking our climate.<br /><br />
The Climate Accountability Institute has updated its <a href="http://climateaccountability.org/carbon_majors_update.html" target="_blank">Carbon Majors Project</a> in time for the climate talks in Lima, Peru, “detailing the direct and product-related emissions traced to the major industrial carbon producers in the oil, natural gas, coal, and cement industries” through 2013. <span class="caps">CAI</span> has found that the carbon-based fossil fuels and cement produced by just <a href="http://climateaccountability.org/pdf/SumRanking%20Dec14%208p.pdf" target="_blank">90 entities</a> were responsible for 65% of the 1,443 billion metric tonnes of <span class="caps">CO</span>2 emitted between 1751, the dawn of the industrial era, and 2013.<br /><br />
Some 50 investor-owned companies are among the 90 entities on the Carbon Majors list, and they are collectively responsible for nearly <a href="http://climateaccountability.org/pdf/Media%20Outline%20Dec14.pdf" target="_blank">22% of all global warming emissions</a> up to 2013, while the 36 state-owned companies on the list are responsible for another 20%.</p>
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<p><br />
Chevron tops the list of cumulative emissions traced to fossil fuel- and cement-producing companies—one company responsible for 3.34% of all greenhouse gases that have been dumped into our planet’s atmosphere. Exxon isn’t far behind, coming in at third with 3.10%.<br /><br />
Here are the top 20 climate changing companies on Earth:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/blogimages/Cumulative%20emissions%20chart.png" target="blank"><img alt="" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/blogimages/Cumulative%20emissions%20chart.png" style="width: 560px; height: 354px;" /></a><br /><em>Click chart to view larger size.</em><br /><br />
Government-run industries are responsible for more than 23% of historical emissions, according to <span class="caps">CAI</span>.<br /><br />
But it’s the investor-owned, for-profit entities that deserve the real scrutiny right now, because they are the ones waging an all-out campaign to block any and all attempts by the governments of the world from taking meaningful action on climate change.<br /><br />
In the past few days alone, a variety of news reports have come out showing just how brazen the attempts by fossil fuels companies to evade responsibility for their polluting ways really are.<br /><br />
For instance, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=2" target="_blank">New York <em>Times</em> reports</a> that energy companies are buying off the top law enforcement officials in several <span class="caps">U.S.</span> states in order to wage a battle against President Obama’s climate initiatives: “Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year,” the paper writes, adding, “They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake.”<br /><br />
One egregious example cited in the <span class="caps">NYT</span> article is of Oklahoma’s Republican <span class="caps">AG</span>, Scott Pruitt, who sent a letter to the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Environmental Protection Agency accusing the agency of “grossly overestimating” the air pollution caused by drilling for natural gas in his state were “grossly” overestimated. The letter was written by the chief lobbyist for Devon Energy. Pruitt had changed just 37 of the 1,016 words in the letter before sending it to the <span class="caps">EPA</span> on his own state government letterhead.<br /><br />
Meanwhile, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fossil-fuel-lobbyists-bolstered-by-gop-wins-work-to-curb-environmental-rules/2014/12/07/3ef05bc0-79b9-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html" target="_blank">Washington <em>Post</em> reports</a> that “Oil, gas and coal interests that spent millions to help elect Republicans this year are moving to take advantage of expanded <span class="caps">GOP</span> power in Washington and state capitals to thwart Obama administration environmental rules.”<br /><br />
Industry lobbyists, officials from companies like Koch Industries and Peabody Energy, and legislators came together recently at a summit hosted by conservative bill mill <span class="caps">ALEC</span>, according to the WaPo, to hash out several pieces of model legislation “to be introduced across the country next year, designed to give states more power to block or delay new Obama administration environmental standards, including new limits on power-plant emissions.”<br /><br />
The WaPo article also says that a key component of the industry’s strategy is “an effort to apply pressure on Washington from state capitals, where the <span class="caps">GOP</span> has gained substantial ground,” which of course we’ve already seen in action thanks to the <span class="caps">NYT</span> article.<br /><br />
More than regulations that bring down emissions levels from power plants or require natural gas companies stop polluting our air, what fossil fuel companies fear most is something known as the “polluter pays” principle, which Naomi Klein recently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/17/climate-change-make-big-polluters-pay-fossil-fuel-industries" target="_blank">wrote about in <em>The Guardian</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
When Valerie Rockefeller Wayne explained her decision to divest [her family foundation’s holdings from fossil fuels], she said that it was precisely because her family’s wealth was made through oil that they were “under greater moral obligation” to use that wealth to stop climate change.<br /><br />
That, in a nutshell, is the rationale behind polluter pays. It holds that when commercial activity creates hefty public health and environmental damage, the polluters must shoulder a significant share of the costs of repair.</blockquote>
<p>Given the magnitude of their responsibility for cumulative climate changing emissions, it’s unlikely Chevron or Exxon could ever be made to pay up entirely. But it would seem they and other fossil fuels companies aren’t willing to take that chance.</p>
<p style="font-size:9px"><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-229279987/stock-photo-smoking-pipe-of-power-plant.html?src=llxceRjiO2Ocw_3_V4Ih2w-1-40&amp;ws=1" target="_blank">S.Borisov / Shutterstock.com</a> </em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3833">Climate</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/913">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1221">CO2</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1907">methane</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/640">exxon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/chevron">chevron</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19300">fossli fuels</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19301">Climate Accountability Institute</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19302">Carbon Majors Project</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6276">Naomi Klein</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/690">new york times</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6853">ALEC</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/767">washington post</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1471">Environmental Protection Agency</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19303">polluter pays</a></div></div></div>Mon, 15 Dec 2014 18:00:00 +0000Mike Gaworecki8897 at http://desmogblog.comFinancing Climate Action Among Major Concerns in First Week of COP20 Climate Negotiationshttp://desmogblog.com/2014/12/07/financing-climate-action-among-major-concerns-first-week-cop20-climate-negotiations
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/COP20.jpg?itok=hi217Cky" width="200" height="115" alt="COP20 UNFCCC DeSmog Canada" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">How to finance a global shift away from toxic greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels was one of the key talking points during the first week of the annual United Nations climate change conference held this year in Lima, Peru.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The conference, which began Monday and is scheduled to end next Friday, started with a </span><a href="http://unfccc.int/files/press/statements/application/pdf/cf-opening_speech-cop20.pdf" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">statement</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> by Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the </span><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (<span class="caps">UNFCCC</span>), who said negotiators must draft a new, universal climate change agreement that will hopefully be endorsed next year at <span class="caps">COP</span>21 in Paris.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Figueres also said negotiators “must enhance the delivery of finance, in particular to the most vulnerable” as well as stimulating “ever-increasing action on the part of all stakeholders to scale up the scope and accelerate the solutions that move us all forward, faster.”</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In terms of finance, the <span class="caps">UNFCCC</span> published a </span><a href="http://newsroom.unfccc.int/unfccc-newsroom/finance-for-climate-action-flowing-globally/" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">media release</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> saying the amount of money earmarked for climate change action globally was at least $340 billion for the period 2011-2012, but possibly $650 billion or higher.</span></p>
<p>Support from developed countries to developing countries amounted to between $35 and $50 billion annually, the media release said, adding dedicated multilateral climate funds are set to rise with the recent pledges to the Green Climate Fund amounting to nearly $10 billion.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-03/climate-projects-reap-650-billion-a-year-as-aid-to-poor-rises.html">Bloomberg</a>, however, Figueres said at a press conference that much more money needs to be raised to effectively fight climate change.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Although these numbers are encouraging and give us a sense of hope, the fact is that climate finance needs to be in the trillions if we’re going to get to where we need to be,” she said.</p>
<p>Figueres added finance will be a crucial key for achieving the internationally-agreed goal of keeping a global temperature rise under 2 degrees C and sparing people and the planet from dangerous climate change.</p>
<p>Another major talking point at the conference was the release of a <a href="https://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/documents/1009_Draft_Statement_2014.pdf">statement</a> by the World Meteorological Organization (<span class="caps">WMO</span>) saying that <a href="https://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/documents/1009_Draft_Statement_2014.pdf">2014 is on track to be one of the hottest, if not the hottest, years on record</a>.</p>
<p>An accompanying <span class="caps">WMO</span> media release said the record high temperatures are largely due to <a href="https://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_1009_en.html">record high global sea surface temperatures</a>, which will very likely remain above normal until the end of the year.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/2014%20Hottest%20Year%20on%20Record.png" style="width: 560px;" /></p>
<p class="rtecenter"><span style="font-size: 10px;">January to October 2014 average air temperatures. Source: <a href="http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/documents/1009_Draft_Statement_2014.pdf"><span class="caps">WMO</span> Report</a></span></p>
<p>Those high sea temperatures, the <span class="caps">WMO</span> said, and other factors contributed to exceptionally heavy rainfall and floods in many countries and extreme drought in others.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>The provisional information for 2014 means that fourteen of the fifteen warmest years on record have all occurred in the 21st century,” said <span class="caps">WMO</span> Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>What we saw in 2014 is consistent with what we expect from a changing climate. Record-breaking heat combined with torrential rainfall and floods destroyed livelihoods and ruined lives. What is particularly unusual and alarming this year are the high temperatures of vast areas of the ocean surface, including in the northern hemisphere,” Jarraud said.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Record-high greenhouse gas emissions and associated atmospheric concentrations are committing the planet to a much more uncertain and inhospitable future.”</p>
<p>Other developments related to the climate change issue continued to occur outside of the negotiations in Lima.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">UN</span> Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told <span class="caps">CBC</span> that Canada needs to become “ambitious and visionary” and quit stalling on setting climate change goals.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">“It’s only natural that Canada as one of the G7 countries should take a leadership role,” Ban</span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ban-ki-moon-says-canada-must-do-more-on-climate-change-1.2861362" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> said</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>There are ways to make a transformative change from a fossil fuel-based economy to a climate-resilient economy by investing wisely in renewable energy choices.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Earlier in the week efforts in Canada to harness the power of renewables became a prominent news story, as reported by DeSmog Canada, showing that </span><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/2014/12/02/report-clean-energy-provided-more-jobs-last-year-oilsands" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">clean energy provided more jobs in the nation last year than the oilsands</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Canada’s rapidly developing green energy industry has seen investments of more than $24 billion in the past five years while employment in the sector increased by 37 per cent during the same period, according to the report by </span><a href="http://cleanenergycanada.org/" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Clean Energy Canada</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The 34-page </span><a href="http://cleanenergycanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/TER-Canada-Singles-Final-.pdf" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Tracking the Energy Revolution — Canada</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> report noted that there were 23,700 total direct jobs in the green energy sector in 2013, compared to 22,340 jobs in the oilsands.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Germany’s largest energy company, E.<span class="caps">ON</span>, on the first day of the Lima conference, created global headlines with an </span><a href="http://www.eon.com/content/dam/eon-com/Presse/2014121_Statement_Strategy_en.pdf" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">announcement</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> that it was splitting the company into two with the largest share of employees, about 40,000, getting out of the coal and gas business and focusing entirely on renewables.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>We have seen the emergence of a new energy world,” Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen said. “E.<span class="caps">ON</span>’s existing broad business model can no longer properly address these new challenges.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In the U.S., 223 companies announced their support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon standard for electric power plants, including industry giants such as <span class="caps">IKEA</span>, Mars Inc., <span class="caps">VF</span> Corporation, and Nestlé.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>As businesses concerned about the immediate and long-term implications of climate change, we strongly support the principles behind the draft Carbon Pollution Standard for existing power plants,” states the </span><a href="http://www.ceres.org/files/bicep-files/carbon-pollution-standards-support-letter" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">letter</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, which was sent to the <span class="caps">EPA</span>, the Obama Administration, and Senate and House majority and minority leaders.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard represents a critical step in moving our country towards a clean energy economy,” said the letter.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Also spurring headlines was the release of a </span><a href="http://www.munichre.com/us/property-casualty/press-news/press-releases/2014/141202-climate-change-survey/index.html" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Munich Re poll</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> that showed 83 per cent of Americans now believe the climate is changing, and 63 per cent are concerned about changes in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Our survey findings indicate that national sentiment over whether or not climatic changes are occurring has finally reached a tipping point,” said Tony Kuczinski, President and <span class="caps">CEO</span> of Munich Re America.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_TALKS_CHANGING_WORLD?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Associated Press</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> also contributed to the pressing global conversation on climate change, saying that in the more than two decades since world leaders first got together to try to solve global warming, life on Earth has changed, not just the climate.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>It’s gotten hotter, more polluted with heat-trapping gases, more crowded and just downright wilder,” the <span class="caps">AP</span> reported.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>The numbers are stark. Carbon dioxide emissions: up 60 per cent. Global temperature: up six-tenths of a degree. Population: up 1.7 billion people. Sea level: up 3 inches. <span class="caps">U.S.</span> extreme weather: up 30 per cent. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica: down 4.9 trillion tons of ice.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Negotiators in Lima will no doubt be discussing these developments, and more, next week as they work towards — as they have said repeatedly in the past — an ambitious legally-binding greenhouse gas emissions agreement next year in </span><a href="http://unfccc.int/meetings/unfccc_calendar/items/2655.php?year=2015" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Paris</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19136">COP20</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2409">UNFCCC</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/913">global warming</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19137">Lima</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1102">Peru</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5059">Christiana Figueres</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1908">carbon dioxide</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4593">ice melt</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11449">munich re</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15007">Clean Energy Canada</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/722">renewable energy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19219">WMO</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19220">Michel Jarraud</a></div></div></div>Sun, 07 Dec 2014 17:43:12 +0000Chris Rose8884 at http://desmogblog.comWalmart’s Reliance On Dirty Energy Responsible For 8 Million Metric Tons of Carbon Pollution Per Yearhttp://desmogblog.com/2014/11/28/walmart-s-reliance-dirty-energy-responsible-8-million-metric-tons-carbon-pollution-year
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_186861932.jpg?itok=ubp_tKs_" width="200" height="133" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Recent revelations that the Walton Family, majority owners of Walmart, are <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/11/16/walton-family-owners-walmart-using-their-billions-attack-rooftop-solar" target="_blank">funding attacks against the rooftop solar industry</a> called into question the big-box retailer’s <a href="http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/environment-sustainability/energy" target="_blank">very public</a> “100% renewable energy” commitment. A <a href="http://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ILSR_WalmartCoal_Final.pdf" target="_blank">new report</a> by the Institute on Local Self-Reliance (<span class="caps">ILSR</span>) documenting Walmart’s massive carbon emissions is likely to add even more fuel to that fire.<br /><br />
According to <span class="caps">ILSR</span>, which also <a href="http://ilsr.org/walton-report/" target="_blank">exposed the Walton Family’s anti-rooftop solar initiatives</a>, Walmart is one of the <a href="http://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ILSR_WalmartCoal_Final.pdf" target="_blank">heaviest users of coal-fired electricity</a> in the United States, resulting in 8 million metric tons of carbon pollution produced every year by the mega chain’s operations.<br /><br />
Since making its environmental commitments in 2005 with great fanfare, Walmart has done little to honor its pledge to transition to renewable energy and “be a good steward of the environment.”<br /><br />
Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher at <span class="caps">ILSR</span> and co-author of the new report, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stacy-mitchell/walmart-climate-change_b_5063035.html" target="_blank">wrote in April</a> that Walmart's use of renewables peaked in 2011 and has slipped since then.<br /><br />
“Walmart’s progress on renewable power is particularly pitiful when you look at other retailers,” she added. “Staples, Kohl's, and Whole Foods, along with numerous small businesses, have already passed the 100 percent renewable power mark.”<br /><br />
Today, just 3% of the electricity powering Walmart’s <span class="caps">U.S.</span> stores comes from renewable sources.</p>
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<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Despite making a public commitment to sustainability nine years ago, Walmart still favors dirty coal-generated electricity over solar and wind, because the company insists on using the cheapest power it can find,” <a href="http://ilsr.org/walmarts-dirty-energy-secret/" target="_blank">Mitchell said in a statement</a>.<br /><br />
In an email to DeSmog, Walmart spokesman Kevin Gardner said that, “In the U.S., as of 2013, Walmart-driven renewable energy projects provided three percent of our building’s annual electricity needs, and the grid provided another 11 percent for a total of 14 percent renewable electricity in the U.S.”<br /><br />
Gardner also noted that the <a href="http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-means-business-2014-top-us-commercial-solar-users" target="_blank">Solar Energy Industry Association recognized Walmart</a> last month as the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> business with the most installed solar capacity at over 105 megawatts, but he declined to comment on what the sources are for the other 86% of Walmart’s electricity consumption and did not respond to questions about Walmart’s carbon emissions.<br /><br /><span class="caps">ILSR</span>’s report says that Walmart’s <span class="caps">U.S.</span> operations use more than 4.2 million tons of coal every year, which accounts for nearly 75% of the company’s emissions from electricity use in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span><br /><br />
The report also notes that more than half of the Congressional candidates supported by Walmart and the Walton Family in the 2011-2012 election cycle favor dirty energy and oppose action on climate change. The Walton Family has also spent its money to essentially buy green cred in the past. For instance, the Walton Family Fund has given the Environmental Defense Fund, which <a href="http://grist.org/business-technology/edf-sells-green-cred-to-walmart-for-the-low-low-price-of-66-million/" target="_blank">Grist once called</a> “Walmart’s right-hand man in the green game,” some $66 million since 2005. “It turns out, unlike most Walmart jobs, that’s a pretty lucrative gig to have,” Grist wrote.<br /><br />
As Walmart workers continue to <a href="http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Corporate-Greed/Walmart-Workers-to-Strike-as-New-Report-Calls-Company-America-s-Largest-Poverty-Incubator" target="_blank">go on strike to protest low wages</a>, it’s worth noting that “there is a close correlation between low wages and high emissions,” according to Naomi Klein in her latest book, This Changes Everything. “And why wouldn’t there be?” Klein writes. “The same logic that is willing to work laborers to the bone for pennies a day will burn mountains of dirty coal while spending next to nothing on pollution controls because it’s the cheapest way to produce.”<br /><br />
“Walmart could single-handedly strengthen the middle class and help create a vibrant clean energy economy that promotes good jobs,” Green For All executive director <a href="http://ilsr.org/walmarts-dirty-energy-secret/" target="_blank">Jeremy Hays says</a>. “After years of empty promises, Walmart should be using its power and wealth to build stronger and more sustainable communities, not disrespecting workers and endangering the future of our planet.”</p>
<p style="font-size:9px"><em>Image Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-186861932/stock-photo-salinas-ca-usa-april-walmart-store-exterior-walmart-is-an-american-multinational.html?src=5wP5R0CsmiNUzBvH0W5asA-1-3" target="_blank">Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com</a> </em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10401">Walmart</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19103">Walton Family</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19104">Walton Family Foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19105">Institute on Local Self-Reliance</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1169">greenhouse gases</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/722">renewable energy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6443">solar</a></div></div></div>Fri, 28 Nov 2014 20:33:32 +0000Mike Gaworecki8838 at http://desmogblog.comNASA Shows How Carbon Emissions Travel Around The World http://desmogblog.com/2014/11/20/nasa-shows-how-carbon-emissions-swirl-and-shift-around-world
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Nasa%20carbon%20emissions.jpg?itok=WwKT4RSb" width="200" height="95" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span class="caps">NASA</span> scientists have brought to life the invisible carbon emissions floating around the atmosphere in a vivid, swirling simulation.</p>
<p>The “Year in The Life of Earth’s <span class="caps">CO</span><sub>2</sub>” computer model is the first to show in such fine detail how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere moves across the globe.</p>
<p>The new model clearly shows that carbon is not distributed uniformly across the globe. Wind carries away the long streams of emissions spewing out of North America, Europe and Asia, with much of it winding up above the Arctic.</p>
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<p><span class="dquo">“</span>While the presence of carbon dioxide has dramatic global consequences, it’s fascinating to see how local emission sources and weather systems produce gradients of its concentration on a very regional scale,” said Bill Putman, lead scientist on the project from <span class="caps">NASA</span>’s Goddard Space Flight Center.</p>
<p><strong>Carbon pathways</strong></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Simulations like this, combined with data from observations, will help improve our understanding of both human emissions of carbon dioxide and natural fluxes across the globe.”</p>
<p>Despite carbon dioxide’s significance, a lot is still unknown about the pathways it takes from emission source to the atmosphere or into carbon sinks such as oceans and forests.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/x1SgmFa0r04" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>The super-computer model, which depicts emissions from 2006, shows the seasonal carbon fluctuations as plants absorb <span class="caps">CO</span><sub>2</sub> in the spring and summer. With autumn comes decreased photosynthesis and the subsequent accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere.</p>
<p>But only half of the <span class="caps">CO</span><sub>2</sub> emitted by fossil fuels is absorbed by plants and oceans, while the rest remains in the atmosphere.</p>
<p><strong>Rising temperatures</strong></p>
<p>As Putman pointed out: “Although this [seasonal] change is expected, we’re seeing higher concentrations of carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere each year, this is contributing to the long-term trend of rising global temperatures.”</p>
<p>Carbon dioxide levels have been rising in our atmosphere since the industrial revolution. And last spring, the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide – the key driver of global warming – exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time in modern history; <a href="http://400.350.org/">a symbolic moment</a> highlighting that our dependence on fossil fuels is out of control.</p>
<p><span class="caps">NASA</span>’s data modelling will be used to help scientists better predict future climate conditions. The project will be combined with satellite observations such as those from <span class="caps">NASA</span>’s <a href="http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/">Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2</a> launched in July to chart atmospheric <span class="caps">CO</span><sub>2</sub> levels.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/kylamandel">@kylamandel</a></p>
<p>Photo: <span class="caps">NASA</span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/689">NASA</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/946">arctic</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/19051">CO2 emissions</a></div></div></div>Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:30:28 +0000Kyla Mandel8807 at http://desmogblog.comThe EU’s New Climate Commitments Make Canada and the U.S. Look Ridiculoushttp://desmogblog.com/2014/11/05/eu-s-new-climate-commitments-make-canada-and-u-s-look-ridiculous
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Connie%20Hedegaard%20Commissioner%20Climate%20Action.jpg?itok=-ZGzjVWt" width="200" height="134" alt="connie hedegaard, climate change, EU" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The European Union has reached a new legally-binding climate change agreement that would see greenhouse gas emissions drop by at least 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2030.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/2030/index_en.htm" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">agreement</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, signed off in Brussels two weeks ago by the <span class="caps">EU</span>’s 28 member nations, is designed to ensure Europe meets its objective of cutting emissions by at least 80 per cent by mid-century.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">It also puts Europe in the lead position to help persuade other nations trailing far behind the <span class="caps">EU</span>’s emissions-reduction goals to reach a long-sought global climate change accord next year in Paris.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The 2030 climate and energy plan also calls for the share of renewable energy to increase to 27 per cent of 1990 levels while seeing a 27 per cent increase in energy efficiency.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">In an official </span><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/articles/news_2014102401_en.htm" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">statement</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said the 2030 package is very good news for the fight against climate change.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>No player in the world is as ambitious as the European Union when it comes to cutting greenhouse gas emissions,” Barroso said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Indeed, the proof that it is ambitious is that we are now going from a goal of 20 per cent cut by 2020 compared to 1990 to 40 per cent by 2030, so, doubling the effort.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action, said she was pleased the 28 <span class="caps">EU</span> leaders, despite economic uncertainty and other severe international crises, agreed to the package.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>The <span class="caps">EU</span> leaders’ decision … is an ambitious and important step forward,” Hedegaard said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Important not only to Europe and the Europeans, but also to the rest of the world. We have sent a strong signal to other big economies and all other countries: we have done our homework, now we urge you to follow Europe’s example.”</span></p>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Bold climate leadership</span></span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">A </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/10/15/europe-poised-press-ahead-drastic-greenhouse-gas-reductions-other-nations-lag-behind" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">DeSmogBlog</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> posting recently noted that Europe is already a world leader in emissions reductions. By way of comparison, under the Copenhagen Accord, Canada, the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> and other nations only committed to reducing domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Global </span><a href="http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">greenhouse gas emissions grew astronomically</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> between 1990, the year Europe’s climate targets are based on, and 2005, the year the Copenhagen’s Accord’s targets are based on — making the European targets far more meaningful than those of Canada and the <span class="caps">U.S.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The new agreement will drive continued progress towards a low-carbon economy, according to the official statement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>It aims to build a competitive and secure energy system that ensures affordable energy for all consumers, increases the security of the <span class="caps">EU</span>’s energy supplies, reduces our dependence on energy imports and creates new opportunities for growth and jobs,” a statement accompanying the report said.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/24/world/europe/european-leaders-agree-on-targets-to-fight-climate-change-.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;version=HpHeadline&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The New York Times</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> noted the new accord makes the European Union the first major global emitter to put its position on the table ahead of the important United Nations climate meeting in Paris at the end of 2015.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The <span class="caps">NYT</span> story added that German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the new target “will ensure that Europe will be an important player, will be an important party, in future binding commitments of an international </span><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/united_nations_framework_convention_on_climate_change/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">climate agreement</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/eu-leaders-agree-to-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-40-by-2030" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Guardian</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> newspaper noted that a clause was inserted into the agreement text that could trigger a review of the <span class="caps">EU</span>’s new targets if other countries do not come forward with comparable commitments in Paris.</span></p>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Still not enough clean energy emphasis</span></span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Despite praise, some point out the agreement not only provides a back-out clause but remains non-binding while failing to provide concrete steps for moving to clean and renewable sources of energy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The new 40 per cent emissions-reduction target falls far too short of what the <span class="caps">EU</span> needs to do to pull its weight in the fight against climate change, </span><a href="http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/pressroom/reactions/europe-must-review-climate-targets-after-weak-climate-package-deal" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Natalia Alonso</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, Oxfam International’s deputy director of advocacy and campaigns, said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Insufficient action like this from the world’s richest countries places yet more burden on the poorest people most affected by climate change, but least responsible for causing this crisis,” Alonso said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">EU</span> leaders had an opportunity to shape a smarter, fairer, more sustainable future through a clear shift towards renewable energy and energy efficiency, she said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Instead, they have been held back by the fossil fuel industry and their friends, settling for an underwhelming response that keeps the <span class="caps">EU</span> stuck in the energy and climate crisis.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Brook Riley, climate justice and energy campaigner for </span><a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/EU-climate-deal-puts-polluters-before-people-241014" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Friends of the Earth Europe</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, described the agreement as dangerously irresponsible.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>This deal does nothing to end Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels or to speed up our transition to a clean energy future,” Riley said. “It’s a deal that puts dirty industry interests ahead of citizens and the planet.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Samantha Smith, leader of </span><a href="http://www.wwf.eu/?231590/EU-fails-credibility-test-on-2030-climate-and-energy-ambition" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="caps">WWF</span></a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative, said the new targets are thoroughly inadequate.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>We are facing what is likely to be the warmest year ever, heat waves and flooding are already hitting Europe, and the developing world is experiencing even more dire impacts,” Smith said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>European countries need to deliver targets that will drive a rapid and just transition out of fossil fuels and into renewables and energy efficiency. Until they have done so, they cannot continue to claim to be climate leaders.”</span></p>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Right direction for reduced emissions</span></span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">On Tuesday, the </span><a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/media/newsreleases/policies-put-the-eu-on" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">European Environment Agency</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> (<span class="caps">EEA</span>) said greenhouse gas emissions in the <span class="caps">EU</span> fell almost two per cent between 2012 and 2013. According to an <span class="caps">EEA</span> analysis, the <span class="caps">EU</span> is likely to cut emissions by at least 21 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020, surpassing its 20 per cent target.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The analysis shows the <span class="caps">EU</span> is also ahead of the planned trajectory to hit 20 per cent renewable energy by 2020. Likewise, the <span class="caps">EU</span>’s energy consumption is also falling faster than would be necessary to meet the 2020 energy efficiency target.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Our analysis shows that Europe is on track towards its 2020 targets,” Hans Bruyninckx, <span class="caps">EEA</span> Executive Director, pointed out.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Even against the backdrop of economic recession in recent years, we can see that policies and measures are working and have played a key role in reaching this interim result. But there is no room for complacency. The analyses we are publishing today also highlight countries and sectors where progress has been slower than planned.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><em>Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/16452724@N03/1775200444/in/photolist-6wPnS7-66JDYh-bPkbWM-3GSnfd-3GN4z2-h8ukd6-3GMWvV-3GN2vg-3GNfST-3GN16g-3GSokL-3GN7ve-3GMWMt-3GSvgu-3GNbYx-3GSANu-3GN2hp-3GSjCC-3GSr79-3GStFY">Connie Hedegaard</a>, Commissioner Climate Action via Flickr.</em></span></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/885">un</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/739">eu</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5371">regulation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2031">clean energy</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18597">Paris</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18598">COP 20</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18599">European Energy Agency</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11799">climate action</a></div></div></div>Wed, 05 Nov 2014 23:26:33 +0000Chris Rose8702 at http://desmogblog.com“Citizen Interventions” Have Cost Canada’s Tar Sands Industry $17B, New Report Showshttp://desmogblog.com/2014/11/03/citizen-interventions-have-cost-canada-s-tar-sands-industry-17b-new-report-shows
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/People%27s%20Climate%20March%20Zack%20Embree_1.jpg?itok=x9vo8VgV" width="200" height="133" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Oil companies and fossil fuel investors seeking further developments in the Alberta tar sands have been dealt another setback with the publication of a report showing producers lost $17.1 billion <span class="caps">USD</span> between 2010-2013 due to successful public protest campaigns.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Fossil fuel companies lost $30.9 billion overall during the same period partly due to the changing North American oil market but largely because of a fierce grassroots movement against tar sands development, said the report — </span><a href="http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2014/10/IEEFA.OCI_.Material-Risks-FINweb2-1.pdf" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Material Risks: How Public Accountability Is Slowing Tar Sands Development</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">A significant segment of opposition is from First Nations in Canada who are raising sovereignty claims and other environmental challenges, added the report, which was produced by the </span><a href="http://www.ieefa.org/category/press/" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> (<span class="caps">IEEFA</span>) and </span><a href="http://priceofoil.org" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Oil Change International</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> (<span class="caps">OCI</span>).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Tar sands producers face a new kind of risk from growing public opposition,” Tom Sanzillo, director of finance at <span class="caps">IEEFA</span>, and one of the lead authors on the report, </span><a href="http://priceofoil.org/2014/10/29/tar-sands-material-risks-report-press-release/" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">said</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. “This opposition has achieved a permanent presence as public sentiment evolves and as the influence of organizations opposed to tar sands production continues to grow.”</span></p>
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<h3>
Opposition to tar sands unexpected</h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Steve Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, added industry officials never anticipated the level and intensity of public opposition to their massive build-out plans.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Public opposition has caused government and its administrative agencies to take a second and third look,” Kretzmann said. “Legal and other challenges are raising new issues related to environmental protection, indigenous rights and the disruptive impact of new pipeline proposals.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">He added anti-pipeline protests are keeping carbon in the ground, and changing the bottom line for the tar sands industry. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Business as usual for Big Oil – particularly in the tar sands – is over,” Kretzmann said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The report said market forces and public opposition have played a significant role in the cancellation of three major tar sands projects in 2014 alone: Shell’s Pierre River, Total’s Joslyn North, and Statoil’s Corner Project. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Combined, these projects would have produced 4.7 billion barrels of bitumen that would in turn have released 2.8 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide (<span class="caps">CO</span>2) into the atmosphere,” the 28-page report said. “This is equivalent to the emissions of building 18 new coal plants that would last 40 years each.”</span></p>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Growing First Nations voices take tar sands story international</span></span></h3>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>I think it’s pretty inspiring and also uplifting to see the recognition of First Nations that have been very vocal and have articulated their staunch opposition to tar sands expansion in our traditional homelands,” <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/Blog/idle-no-more-in-the-tar-sands/blog/43665/">Melina Laboucan-Massimo</a>, a Greenpeace Canada campaigner from the Lubicon Cree, told DeSmog.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Laboucan-Massimo and other representatives from local First Nations like <a href="http://www.350maine.org/speaker_biographies">Eriel Deranger</a> from the Fort Chipewyan have been campaigning for years to bring greater awareness to the human health and environmental impacts of rapid tar sands expansion. Laboucan-Massimo said she spent a lot of energy campaigning outside of Canadian borders, speaking to parliamentarians in the U.K., across Europe, as well as to <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Congress and the shareholders of major companies.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>We wanted to tell the story on the outside and really put that pressure on the Canadian government to do its due diligence and be accountable to its own citizens,” she said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>I think that’s a part of what’s been effective in this campaign of accountability, that people not only in Canada but around the world were asking what is happening in Canada? Why is Canada such a climate laggard? Why is the Canadian government not listening to the voices of their own people?”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The growing environmental movement, she said, has been better at incorporating the voices of local First Nations living on the front lines of the tar sands. The movement also now represents a much wider range of social perspectives.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>When we work in coalitions – the environmental movement, First Nations and the labour movement – there’s such a convergence of diverse voices…we’re really starting to see growing public accountability and public opposition being seen and taken seriously.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">She added the future of the tar sands under the Harper government is “tenuous” because “you can see he has a very pro-tar sands agenda,” she said. But, she added, even five or 10 years ago very few Canadians knew what the tar sands were and had little awareness of the switch from conventional to unconventional, extreme forms of energy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Now people are quite aware that that’s what been happening and there has been a public dialogue created on that and there has been more pressure on the government to really address the environmental concerns, the health issues and indigenous rights violations. I feel like people really are a lot more aware of these issues now than in the past.”</span></p>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> delay shows tar sands “weakness”</span></span></h3>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The report says the proposed Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> tar sands pipeline is one of the most talked about North American energy and political issues of the era.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Once thought inevitable, the project and Canada’s plan to expand tar sands production have been confronted by an accumulation of economic and political risks creating a veritable ‘carbon blockade.’”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Project delays are taking a financial and political toll on proposed tar sands projects, the report said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>The delays and cancellations have exposed the fact that tar sands investments, once thought to be highly lucrative, are showing signs of financial weakness. With growing public awareness and market hesitancy, expansion of tar sands production in Canada will remain contested terrain for the foreseeable future.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The report also noted that the tar sands sector faces a growing constellation of risks as project economics become pressured by low oil prices and shrinking revenues, rising costs, smaller profit margins, tougher capital markets, transport constraints, environmental challenges and protectionist legislation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Nine of 10 leading tar sands producers in Canada have underperformed the stock market in the last five years, it said, adding industry experts have recently downgraded their outlook for future tar sands production.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Tar sands pipeline campaigns are a recent example of how public advocacy efforts can alter capital investment decision making,” the report said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>The Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> campaign has managed thus far to delay a final governmental decision on the project while raising public awareness about the environmental costs of tar sands development.”</span></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>These citizen interventions have resulted in increased diligence by government agencies with public health and environmental mandates, impaired the project development process of the capital markets and mobilized a permanent, political constituency in support of alternatives to tar sands expansion.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The report noted there was an expectation that the TransCanada Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> pipeline would receive necessary approvals quickly when it was originally proposed in 2008 and be up and running by late 2011.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Time and events changed this storyline,” the report added. “By 2011 Russ Girling, the <span class="caps">CEO</span> of TransCanada, said ‘There is no way we could have ever predicted that we would become the lightning rod for a debate around fossil fuels and the development of the Canadian oil sands.’”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">According to a report in the </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/03/protests-tar-sands-industry-17bn-report" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Guardian</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, Canada has staked its energy future on a massive expansion of tar sands, which hold the world’s third largest reserve of crude after Saudia Arabia and Venezuela.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>But the huge amounts of water and solvents needed to extract oil from bitumen dramatically boost greenhouse gas output and, on latest production forecasts, will increase Canada’s <span class="caps">CO</span>2 emissions </span><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/why-the-oil-sands-matter-to-every-canadian/article21331322/" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">by 56 megatonnes by 2020</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">,” the Guardian said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:10px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><em>Image Credit: People's Climate March by <a href="http://zackembree.com">Zack Embree</a></em></span></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2738">oilsands</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1165">Alberta</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5758">Protest</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18756">resistance</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/10145">Opposition</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18757">public accountability</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18758">Tom Zanzillo</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2812">oil change international</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18759">Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18760">IEEFA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18761">OCI</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18762">Steve Kretzmann</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6577">pipelines</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1267">big oil</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18763">carbon blockade</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5857">Keystone XL</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14775">Russ Girling</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5420">TransCanada</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5534">Northern Gateway Pipeline</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4389">Enbridge</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2740">first nations</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16894">indigenous rights</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/18764">Melina Laboucan-Massimo</a></div></div></div>Mon, 03 Nov 2014 23:41:29 +0000Chris Rose8732 at http://desmogblog.comWhat Does Climate Adaptation Actually Look Like? Check Out This Awesome New Infographic Series from Cambridgehttp://desmogblog.com/2014/09/05/what-does-climate-adaptation-actually-look-check-out-awesome-new-infographic-series-cambridge
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/Climate%20Change%20Adaptation%20CISL_0.png?itok=-sXhmUfA" width="200" height="102" alt="climate change adaptation, CISL" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">A new series looking at the likely impacts of climate change could help companies, politicians, financial planners, entrepreneurs, defence analysts and leaders of various industrial sectors learn how to adapt to the increasing pressures of global warming.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Based on work already done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (<span class="caps">CISL</span>) announced Thursday it had released a briefing </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/ipcc" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">series</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> so that people, organizations and governments would be better prepared for a challenging and volatile future.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Working with the Judge Business School and the European Climate Foundation, the <span class="caps">CISL</span> series summarizes the likely impacts of climate change on </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Agriculture.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">agriculture</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Buildings.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">buildings</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Cities.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">cities</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Defence.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">defence</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Employment.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">employment</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Energy.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">energy</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Investors-and-Financial-Institutions.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">investment</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Fisheries-and-Aquaculture.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">fisheries</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Extractive-and-Primary-Industries.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">primary industries</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Tourism.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">tourism</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, and </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Climate-Change-Implications-for-Transport.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">transportation</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Among the topics addressed, the series looks at the urgency of protecting people in urban areas from climate change impacts, the potential for the energy sector to reduce emissions by switching to lower-carbon fuels, improving energy efficiency and introducing carbon capture and storage, the disruptive impacts global warming will have on the financial system, potential losses to global fisheries of up to $40 billion by mid-century, the way climate change acts as a “threat multiplier,” driving involuntary migration and indirectly increasing the risks of violent conflict, and the need for additional energy supply investments of between $190-900 billion per year from now until 2050.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">The series, which includes numerous infographics, also looks at the capacity for various sectors to adapt to climate change and to contribute to greenhouse gas emissions reductions.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Agriculture__Infographic__WEB_EN%20%281%29.pdf"><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Agriculture%20Climate%20CISL_0.png" style="width: 575px; height: 407px;" /></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;">Between 10 and 12 per cent of man-made <span class="caps">GHG</span> emissions in 2010 came from the agricultural sector, which is increasingly threatened by a warming climate. Click image to enlarge.</span></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Buildings__Infographic__WEB_EN_0.pdf"><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Building%20for%20a%20low%20carbon%20future%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></span></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;">According to <span class="caps">CISL</span> “there is potential for energy savings of 50-90 per cent in existing and new buildings.” Click image to enlarge.</span></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Cities__Infographic__WEB_EN_0.pdf"><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/climate%20change%20and%20cities%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></span></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;">More than half the world's population now lives in cities, making urban areas more important than ever for climate change adaptation. Click image to enlarge.</span></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5_Defence_Infographic_WEB_EN__.pdf"><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Defense%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 405px;" /></span></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="font-size:9px;">Defense will play an increasingly important role in responding to climate change. Click image to enlarge.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>, said in an accompanying </span><a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Press.aspx" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">media release</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> that he endorsed the series.</span></p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>I applaud this initiative,” Pachauri said. “Spelling out the implications of climate change for different sectors, on the basis of the work of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span>, will allow businesses to adapt to the challenges they face and understand the role they are able to play in reducing their climate impact.”</p>
<p>Polly Courtice, Director of <span class="caps">CISL</span>, said that understanding the science of climate change is absolutely vital. “This series does a remarkable job of taking the hugely-complex and technical findings of the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> report and translating them for business.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC%20AR5_Employment_Infographic_WEB_EN.pdf"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Employment%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;">According to <span class="caps">CISL</span>, the impacts of climate change threaten the employment sector, while mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects will create employment opportunities. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Energy__Infographic__WEB_EN.pdf"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Energy%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;">Carbon capture and storage, limiting use, greater efficiency and a greater use of renewables are all ways to reduce energy emissions. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Extractive_and_Primary_Industries__Infographic_WEB__EN.pdf"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Primary%20and%20Extractive%20Industries%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 404px;" /></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;"><span class="caps">GHG</span>s from industry nearly doubled between 1970 and 2010 and the sector is anticipating a 45-60 percent increase in global demand for industry products by 2050. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Investors__Infographic__WEB_EN.pdf"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Finance%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;">An estimated investment of <span class="caps">USD</span> $190-$900 billion a year to 2050 is needed for the energy sector to keep temperatures from rising 2C. An estimated $340 billion was invested in reducing <span class="caps">GHG</span> emissions in 2011/2012. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p>Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the <span class="caps">UN</span> Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the series infographics translate the sometimes complex science into compelling visuals and narratives. “They underline why we need a meaningful agreement in Paris in 2015 — one that can put in the pathways that will dramatically bend down the emissions curve, trigger a deep de-carbonization of the global economy and realize a climate neutral world in the second half of the century.”</p>
<p>As an example of how the series explores likely climate change impacts in different sectors, the briefing on agriculture addresses reduced crop yields and predicted food price rises of 37 per cent (rice), 55 per cent (maize), and 11 per cent (wheat) by 2050.</p>
<p>Turning to mitigation, the briefing notes that greenhouse gas (<span class="caps">GHG</span>) emissions from agriculture comprised about 10 – 12 per cent of man-made <span class="caps">GHG</span> emissions in 2010. “This is the largest contribution from any sector of non-carbon dioxide (<span class="caps">CO</span>2) <span class="caps">GHG</span>s such as methane, accounting for 56 per cent of non-<span class="caps">CO</span>2 emissions in 2005. The agricultural sector has significant potential to make cuts in <span class="caps">GHG</span> emissions.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Fisheries_and_Aquaculture__Infographic__WEB_EN.pdf"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Fisheries%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;">The world's oceans have seen roughly a 30 per cent increase in acidity since pre-industrial times. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IPCC_AR5__Implications_for_Tourism__Infographic__WEB_EN.pdf"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Tourism%20CISL.png" style="width: 575px; height: 406px;" /></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;">Forests, lakes, rivers, snow, and biodiversity are all affected by climate change, which is expected to impact all sub-sectors of the tourism industry. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.desmog.ca/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Transport%20CISL.png"><span style="font-size:9px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Climate%20Change%20and%20Transport%20CISL_0.png" style="width: 575px;" /></span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:9px;">Nearly 25 per cent of energy-related emissions come from the transport sector and that contribution is expected to rise more than any other energy-related sector. Click image to enlarge.</span></p>
<p>In terms of adaptation, the briefing says no single approach for reducing risk is appropriate across all regions, sectors, and settings. “Farmers can adapt to some changes, but there is a limit to what can be managed. Agricultural companies can draw from a range of options to maximize adaptive capacity based on a solid understanding of risks.”</p>
<p>The briefing document then lists various options — supply, demand, livestock, policy and crops — to help those employed in the agricultural sector deal with future climate change.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:10px;"><em>All images from the <a href="http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/Resources/Climate-and-Energy/Understanding-the-UN-Climate-Science-Reports.aspx">University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership</a>.</em></span></p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9220">mitigation</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3828">adaptation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/17913">Cambridge University</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/17914">Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/17915">Judge Business School</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6353">european climate foundation</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2150">agriculture</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div></div></div>Fri, 05 Sep 2014 18:23:32 +0000Chris Rose8474 at http://desmogblog.comAlberta Ramps Up “Responsible Energy Development” Sales Pitch in Wake of New Keystone XL Delayhttp://desmog.ca/2014/04/24/alberta-ramps-responsible-energy-development-sales-pitch-wake-new-keystone-xl-delay
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/9564120166_aa4cd4ab7b_b.jpg?itok=nsjxAF3e" width="200" height="133" alt="Alberta oilsands tar sands julia kilpatrick" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Days after another delay by the Obama administration on TransCanada's Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> pipeline, members of the Alberta government are hitting the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> circuit to promote the oilsands and boost their “green” credentials. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Three government officials are heading to key regions in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> to push for continued market access and advertise what Albertan energy minister Diana McQueen <a href="http://alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=3625065D0F13C-CC3E-0307-E39564542D0B3514">calls</a> “our commitment to clean energy development.”</span></p>
<p>Alberta hopes to showcase investment in carbon capture and storage (<span class="caps">CCS</span>) technology as part of a successful emissions reduction plan.</p>
<p>Critics say the Alberta government’s talk about “sustainability” and “clean energy” is not in line with reality.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>If you’ve been following the Canadian government’s sales pitch for the Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> pipeline, you’ve probably heard this claim before: ‘Emissions per barrel have been reduced by 26 per cent between 1990 and 2011,’” <a href="http://www.pembina.org/blog/787">writes <span class="caps">P.J.</span> Partington</a>, senior federal policy analyst with the Pembina Institute.</p>
<p>However, the reality, Partington writes, is that “since 1990, oilsands production has quintupled, while <span class="caps">GHG</span> emissions from production and upgrading have quadrupled.”</p>
<!--break-->
<p class="rtecenter"><a href="http://www.pembina.org/blog/787"><img alt="" src="/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202014-04-23%20at%204.21.19%20PM.png" style="width: 600px; height: 442px;" /></a></p>
<p>Partington writes: “[The above graph] shows the close relationship between annual <span class="caps">GHG</span> emissions and the rate of production — especially in recent years.”</p>
<p>University of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/how-canadas-incoherence-on-climate-is-killing-keystone/">wrote this week</a> that Canada's incoherence on climate change has killed Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span>.</p>
<p>“As an antidote to our lack of ambition on policies, our governments both in Edmonton and in Ottawa have decided to work on an ambitious program of wordsmithing,” Leach wrote in <a href="http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/how-canadas-incoherence-on-climate-is-killing-keystone/">Macleans</a>.</p>
<p>Partington notes the oilsands sector already emits as much carbon pollution as the entire province of British Columbia, and production is projected to double within a decade. Trends in the sector’s <span class="caps">GHG</span> performance will therefore have a huge impact on emissions levels and major consequences for Canada.</p>
<h3>
<strong>The sales team</strong></h3>
<p>Cal Dallas, Alberta Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations, is in Seattle, Wash., this week to attend the Pacific Energy Forum (April 23-25). According to the Alberta <a href="http://alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=3625065D0F13C-CC3E-0307-E39564542D0B3514">press release</a>, Dallas will use the opportunity to drum up foreign investment interests in the oilsands and advertise extraction technologies.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>We want to work with Asian partners to better understand how to unlock their unconventional resources in an environmentally sustainable way while encouraging investment in our energy resources,” Dallas said.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Alberta is known to be at the forefront of responsible, sustainable and innovative energy development.”</p>
<p>Dallas will discuss the “importance of energy trade to future economic prosperity” although it is unclear how he will address Alberta’s emissions problems, or the threat climate change poses to heavy hydrocarbon assets.</p>
<p>As DeSmog Canada <a href="http://desmog.ca/2014/04/17/this-change-make-oilsands-no-longer-worth-developing">recently reported</a>, ExxonMobil will soon begin disclosing the risk its carbon assets face given international pressure to address climate change.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Leach recently outlined how the <a href="http://desmog.ca/2014/04/17/this-change-make-oilsands-no-longer-worth-developing">oilsands will quickly become unviable</a> in the face of carbon market policies the Alberta and Canadian governments will have little control over. According to Leach’s analysis the oilsands would become uneconomic with even $50/tonne price on carbon.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">According to Nicole Leonard, Canadian oil energy analyst at Bentek, oilsands production is expected to increase by 400,000 barrels a day by 2017. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Concerns are mounting, however, that Alberta's failure to adequately address emissions output will create undue risk for potential oilsands investors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>All leading energy system analysts agree that the oil sands, and other unconventional oils, should not be rapidly expanding,” </span><a href="http://desmog.ca/2013/09/18/mark-jaccard-european-fuel-regulations-and-canadian-hypocrisy" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">said energy economist Mark Jaccard</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">. International efforts are geared toward limiting global temperature increases below 2 °C.</span></p>
<p>Energy Minister Diana McQueen will also travel this week to Pittsburg, Pa., to deliver a keynote speech at the 13th annual Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Conference (April 28-May 1) and then to New York to promote Alberta to the investment community.</p>
<p>David Dorward, <span class="caps">MLA</span> for Edmonton-Gold Bar, will be in Washington, D.C., April 27 to May 2 to meet with the Port-to-Plains Alliance, a business and government consortium representing the economic corridor from Alberta to Texas.</p>
<p>Dorward will work to advance the “<a href="http://alberta.ca/building-Alberta-plan.cfm">Building Alberta Plan</a>,” a provincial project that hopes to strengthen trade by “opening new markets for Alberta’s resources.”</p>
<h3>
<strong><span class="caps">CCS</span> uncertain</strong></h3>
<p>At the carbon capture event, McQueen will discuss how Alberta’s two <span class="caps">CCS</span> projects demonstrate Alberta’s “commitment to clean energy development.”</p>
<p>Alberta has committed to invest $1.3 billion over 15 years in the Shell Canada Quest carbon capture project to capture waste carbon from its Scotford upgrader and the Enhance Energy Inc. Carbon Trunk Line to capture waste carbon to be used in enhanced oil recovery operations. Shell is half-way completed its project and Enhanced said it would begin constructing its carbon pipeline this spring.</p>
<p>Despite the two projects moving forward, Alberta originally committed to investing in four <span class="caps">CCS</span> projects, but two were cancelled after the companies involved deemed the return on investment insufficient.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">With only two <span class="caps">CCS</span> operations, Alberta is expected to sequester at best three or four million tonnes of carbon a year by 2020 — just </span><a href="http://environment.gov.ab.ca/info/library/7894.pdf" style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">a tenth of the province’s <span class="caps">CCS</span> target</a><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="dquo">“</span>Those two <span class="caps">CCS</span> projects are crucial areas of research that are necessary to develop the technology and it is great that the Alberta government has taken action,” says Andrew Read, technical and policy analyst at the Pembina Institute, adding that it was “unfortunate” the investment in <span class="caps">CCS</span> hasn’t come with other actions to help cut greenhouse gas emissions in Alberta.</span></p>
<h3>
<strong>Emissions still rising rapidly</strong></h3>
<p>Today, emissions from the oil and gas sector are the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/oil-industry-canada-s-biggest-contributor-to-greenhouse-gases-1.2608295">largest source of emissions</a> in Canada, surpassing the transportation sector, according to a recently released Environment Canada report, covering the period from 1990 to 2012.</p>
<p>Alberta has also worked to develop a favourable regulatory framework for future <span class="caps">CCS</span> projects, but new projects are unlikely without either continued massive government support or a <a href="http://www.desmog.ca/2014/02/12/ccs-series-alberta-s-carbon-capture-and-storage-plans-stagnate-carbon-price-lags">market-altering price on carbon</a>. To be viable, Alberta needs a price on carbon of at least $70 a tonne for <span class="caps">CCS</span> technology on upgraders and rising to between $120 to $160 a tonne for <span class="caps">CCS</span> technology to be possible for new steam-assisted oilsands operations, <a href="http://www.ico2n.com/what-is-carbon-capture/carbon-capture-storage-economics/supply-curve">according to <span class="caps">ICO</span><sub>2</sub>N</a>, a Canadian industry-funded group working to advance <span class="caps">CCS</span> technology.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>[<span class="caps">CCS</span>] is one of the tools in the tool box but it is at the bottom of the toolbox,” John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation told DeSmog Canada. “There are a thousand things that are more cost effective and useful before we [employ <span class="caps">CCS</span>] and as long as it is used to extract more fossil fuels, it is not a solution to the problem.”</p>
<h3>
<strong><span class="caps">GHG</span> regulations?</strong></h3>
<p>Since 2007, Alberta has required heavy emitters to pay $15 a tonne into a technology fund if they don’t reduce the intensity of their emissions by 12 per cent from baseline levels.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>Alberta’s plan allows companies to pay a small fee to put carbon into the air and then it gives them back the money, so it is not a system that is moving investments into alternatives,” Bennett says. “Any policy that allows the net amount of carbon dioxide emissions to increase is wrong.”</p>
<p>This time last year, Alberta shocked the federal government and the oil industry with a plan to demand a 40 per cent reduction in per-barrel emissions and a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/albertas-bold-plan-to-cut-emissions-stuns-ottawa-and-oil-industry/article10762621/">$40 per tonne price on emissions that exceed that amount</a>. The plan has since failed to be implemented while Ottawa announced a <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-new-emissions-rules-on-hold-again-harper-says/article16065033/">delay of federal oil and gas greenhouse gas regulations</a> until they can be done “in concert with” the United States.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>The reality of the situation isn’t aligning with [the Alberta government’s] speaking points,” says Read. “I am not sure what they are reporting to decision makers [in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span>] because there hasn’t been any progress on developing oil and gas <span class="caps">GHG</span> regulations.”</p>
<p>The environmental movement in the United States has seized on Alberta’s environmental record in opposing the Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> pipeline. The $5.4 billion pipeline is proposed to pump 830,000 barrels a day from Alberta to the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Gulf Coast. Currently, the southern leg is in operation, but the approval of the northern leg crossing the border sits with the Obama administration for final approval.</p>
<p>After the recent delay, a final decision isn’t expected until 2015.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:10px;"><em>Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pembina/9564120166/in/set-72157635173956630">Julia Kilpatrick</a>, Pembina Institute</em></span></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2738">oilsands</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2632">tar sands</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1165">Alberta</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16063">Energy Minister Diana McQueen</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5857">Keystone XL</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15534">Responsible Resource Development</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2831">ccs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3036">carbon capture and storage</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16064">GHGs</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2031">clean energy</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16065">PJ Partington</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16066">Cal Dallas</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16067">David Dorward</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/16068">Building Alberta Plan</a></div></div></div>Thu, 24 Apr 2014 20:21:40 +0000Raphael Lopoukhine8042 at http://desmogblog.comStudy Finds Methane Leaks 1,000 Times EPA Estimates During Marcellus Drillinghttp://desmogblog.com/2014/04/16/study-find-marcellus-drilling-methane-leaks-1-000-times-epa-estimates-casting-doubt-bridge-fuel-notion
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/shutterstock_94354588_0.jpg?itok=igxQfyBG" width="200" height="302" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>This week, a United Nations panel on climate change issued one of its most urgent warnings to date, explaining that unless major changes to greenhouse gas emissions are made within the next few years, it will become extraordinarily difficult to ward off the worst impacts of climate change.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>We cannot afford to lose another decade,” Ottmar Edenhofer, a German economist and co-chairman of the committee,<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/science/earth/un-climate-panel-warns-speedier-action-is-needed-to-avert-disaster.html"> told The New York Times</a>. </p>
<p>With the time to cut emissions running out, the Obama administration has seized upon the hope that greenhouse gasses can be cut dramatically by switching from coal to natural gas, because gas gives off half as much carbon dioxide as coal when it’s burned. Indeed, when the <span class="caps">EPA</span> published its annual greenhouse gas inventory this Tuesday, it credited a switch from coal to natural gas with helping to cut carbon emissions nationwide.</p>
<p>But a new scientific paper, also published Tuesday in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, further upends the notion that the current shale gas drilling rush is truly helping the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> cut its total greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<p>In fact, the evidence suggests, the Obama administration has understated the full climate impacts of natural gas, focusing too much on only carbon dioxide and failing to take into account another key greenhouse gas: methane.</p>
<p>The paper, the first to directly measure methane plumes above natural gas drilling sites in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale, recorded methane leaks far more powerful than <span class="caps">EPA</span> estimates. Methane is especially important because its global warming effects are at their strongest during the first 20 years after it enters the atmosphere — in other words, during the small window of time identified as crucial by the U.N.’s climate panel.</p>
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<p>Many researchers assumed that leaks during the drilling of a shale gas well would be small, especially when compared to methane emissions when gas wells are deliberately “vented,” or allowed to spew into the atmosphere, or when natural gas, which primarily consists of methane, is transported through pipelines.</p>
<p>“Some inventories leave emissions from drilling out entirely because it is assumed to be negligible,” study co-author Dana Caulton, a Purdue Ph.D. candidate, told <a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/huge-methane-leaks-add-doubt-on-natural-gas-as-a-bridge-fuel-17309">Climate Central</a>.</p>
<p>But, flying a specially equipped airplane over drilling sites, the scientists recorded leaks of methane that were between 100 and 1,000 times the levels <span class="caps">EPA</span> estimates during shale gas drilling.</p>
<p>Shale gas promoters have argued that natural gas can serve as a bridge between the dirty technology of yesterday and the clean renewable energy sources of the distant future.</p>
<p>In the U.K., it was reported that the “bridge fuel” idea even garnered the support of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (<span class="caps">IPCC</span>).</p>
<p>“The shale gas revolution can be very consistent with low-carbon development - that is quite clear. It can be very helpful as a bridge technology,” a report by the Panel was cited by the Daily Mail, Sun and Sunday Times, as saying. But those press reports were quickly discovered to be flawed – they had misattributed a quote from one researcher to the report itself, and that researcher found himself under fire from colleagues for failing to account for methane leaks.</p>
<p><span class="dquo">“</span>The report clearly cautions against shale gas because of concerns with regards to fugitive emissions,” another author <a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2014/04/what-does-the-ipcc-report-say-about-shale-gas/">told</a> Carbon Brief.</p>
<p>So finding out how much methane is leaking is crucial for policymakers.<br /><br />
One widely-cited study concluded that if overall gas leaks top 3.2 percent, using natural gas for electricity is worse for the climate than using coal. Many aging coal-fired plants are being retired, so decisions are now being made about the type of plants that will replace them. Since the average life of a coal plant is 40 years or more, political decisions now could commit us to many more decades of fossil fuel dependence.<br /><br />
Measurements of gas fields nationwide have varied drastically, sparking intense debate over how much methane truly leaks from shale gas fields.</p>
<p>Last September, the oil and gas industry hailed a study by the University of Texas that they said showed <span class="caps">EPA</span> overestimates leaks, and big media outlets like The Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323981304579079400039800412">picked up</a> the industry’s take. That study took a bottom-up approach, measuring the leaks at the well site from ground level, and was criticized because their approach allowed the oil and gas industry to cherry-pick wells where measurements were taken.</p>
<p>Other studies, which took the top-down approach of measuring methane in the atmosphere over shale gas fields <a href="http://cires.colorado.edu/news/press/2013/methaneleaks.html">in Utah</a> and <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/02/1388021/bridge-to-nowhere-noaa-confirms-high-methane-leakage-rate-up-to-9-from-gas-fields-gutting-climate-benefit/">Colorado</a>, found much higher levels than the measurements on the ground would predict — but researchers were unable to conclusively show that those leaks came from the oil and gas industry.</p>
<p>The Pennsylvania methane levels were similar to those recorded over the Utah and Colorado gas fields, and the Pennsylvania researchers were at times able to trace the plumes back to individual gas wells.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/us/study-finds-methane-leaks-negate-climate-benefits-of-natural-gas.html">major study</a> released earlier this year reviewed all existing research and concluded that <span class="caps">EPA</span>’s estimate was far too low. This new research bolsters that conclusion and suggests that methane leak rates could be yet higher.</p>
<p>“Our study confirms what other recent measurement studies have repeatedly found: there is more methane emitted from gas/oil operations than had been estimated,” Cornell professor Anthony Ingraffea, one of the authors of the new paper, told DeSmog. “Moreover, it sheds much needed light on the fact that that so-called ‘excess’ emissions are real and are likely coming, at least in part, from previously un-measured sources, like from drilling itself, and from lost and abandoned wells, and from leaking wells.”</p>
<p>The researchers were able to hone in on methane plumes in the atmosphere and even track some plumes back to single gas drilling sites. Seven high-emitting sites — just 1 percent of the total number of wells — were responsible for up to 30 percent of the methane emissions in a given area. The researchers focused on one possible explanation: Pennsylvania is dotted with abandoned coal mines, and drillers might have been using a technique that allowed gas from those former coal seams to seep out.</p>
<p>The same day the Pennsylvania research was published, the <span class="caps">EPA</span> <a href="http://www.epa.gov/airquality/oilandgas/pdfs/20140415summary.pdf">released</a> five white papers on methane leaks for public comment.</p>
<p>Environmentalists cautiously welcomed the news.<br /><br />
“We are pleased the Obama administration is seeking expert input in assessing the extent of the problem and how to deal with it,” said Earthworks Policy Director Lauren Pagel.</p>
<p>But the <span class="caps">EPA</span> papers focus exclusively on climate impacts over a 100-year timeframe — a move that makes methane leaks seem less important because methane gradually breaks down in the atmosphere over time. During its first two decades, methane is <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/02/2708911/fracking-ipcc-methane/">86 times</a> more powerful than <span class="caps">CO</span>2, but after a century, its effects fall to only roughly 20 times that of carbon.</p>
<p>Climate experts at the <span class="caps">IPCC</span> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/02/2708911/fracking-ipcc-methane/">say</a> it’s vital for policymakers to look not only at the long-term, but also at the effects during the next decade or two. But the Obama administration seems to have eschewed that approach, in a possible signal that the administration intends to continue with a “bridge fuel” based policy.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, the President can't have it both ways,” said Earthworks' Pagel. “He can fight climate change, or he can promote fracking and unconventional oil and gas production. He can’t do both.”</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1907">methane</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/13396">methane leaks</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1908">carbon dioxide</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6641">Bridge Fuel</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4754">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5401">Marcellus shale</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2625">pennsylvania</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15955">Purdue</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6325">Study</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/3619">research</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7885">Evidence</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15956">measurements</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/11915">greenhouse gasses</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15493">Prof. Anthony Ingraffea</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/856">united nations</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1471">Environmental Protection Agency</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15957">Ottmar Edenhofer</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/676">IPCC</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5133">fracking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15958">U.N. endorses fracking</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15959">flawed</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5565">shale gas</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/15960">greenhouse gas inventory</a></div></div></div>Wed, 16 Apr 2014 20:09:53 +0000Sharon Kelly8013 at http://desmogblog.comClimate Policy Already Headlining 2014 Midterm Electionshttp://desmogblog.com/2013/10/25/climate-policy-already-headlining-2014-midterm-elections
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/election2014.jpg?itok=nvzNELVj" width="200" height="196" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The <span class="caps">U.S.</span> may still be more than a year out from the 2014 midterm elections, but Republicans in Congress are <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/330107--house-republican-seeks-to-corner-dems-on-climate-rules">already making the Obama administration’s climate policies</a> a key issue for voters.</p>
<p>Republican Representative Ed Whitfield from Kentucky <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/330107--house-republican-seeks-to-corner-dems-on-climate-rules">announced this week</a> that he intends to make the President’s climate change policies, specifically stricter standards on coal-fired power plants, a top talking point during the coming campaign season. Whitfield also announced that he would introduce legislation to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate coal plant emissions.</p>
<p><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/330107--house-republican-seeks-to-corner-dems-on-climate-rules">The Hill quotes Whitfield</a> as saying, “We are going to mark this legislation up, we are going to get it to the floor, we want to get it over to the Senate, and we want those senators running next year to have to have a discussion with whoever their opponent may be about the future of fossil fuel in America.”</p>
<p>Whitfield wants to force the issue of “restrictive” climate policy onto Democrats who are running in conservative areas of the country, with an emphasis on those running in areas that are entrenched with the dirty energy industry, like his home state of Kentucky, along with West Virginia and the Carolinas.</p>
<p>Representative Whitfield has long been a mouthpiece for the dirty energy industry during his tenure as the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power; a position that has earned him more than <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&amp;cid=N00003467&amp;type=I">$900,000 in campaign donations</a> from the oil, coal, and gas industries.</p>
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<p>The issue that has Whitfield up in arms is the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/business/energy-environment/epa-rules-on-emissions-at-existing-coal-plants-might-give-states-leeway.html?_r=0"><span class="caps">EPA</span>’s forthcoming rules</a> on emission limits for new coal plants. Earlier this year, the <span class="caps">EPA</span> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/business/energy-environment/epa-rules-on-emissions-at-existing-coal-plants-might-give-states-leeway.html?_r=0">put forth several new rules</a> to reduce coal plant emissions, with the second half coming early next year. The <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Supreme Court agreed this month to a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/15/supreme-court-the-epa-can-fight-global-warming-but-well-review-a-few-rules/">partial review of the <span class="caps">EPA</span>’s authority</a> to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act, a move that could either bolster or completely undermine Whitfield’s efforts.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Whitfield has taken on the administration’s climate change policies. After President Obama’s national address on climate change this past summer, <a href="http://whitfield.house.gov/press-release/whitfield-responds-presidents-climate-change-regulations-and-initiatives">Whitfield made the following statement</a>: <br /><br /><em>“The president's plan to regulate new and existing power plants is not surprising…In 2008, the president stated that he would bankrupt the coal industry. Over the past four and a half years, his administration has vigorously pursued this goal through cap-and-trade legislation and a swarm of costly new <span class="caps">EPA</span> regulations. The president’s action plan seeks to limit our nation’s fuel choices and make coal-fired electricity generation in this country extinct, despite the fact that coal is our largest source of electricity and one of the nation’s most abundant and affordable resources.”</em></p>
<p>Representative Whitfield <a href="http://whitfield.house.gov/press-release/whitfield-responds-presidents-climate-change-regulations-and-initiatives">claims that the new <span class="caps">EPA</span> standards will force countless coal-fired power plants to shut down</a>, which will lead to rampant joblessness across the country. This is going to be his talking point in next year’s midterm election, as he tries to dupe the American public into voting for dirty energy by playing on their fears. <br /><br />
We can expect much more of this spin over the next 12 months. Are you ready?</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14169">Election 2014</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5227">politics</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ed-whitfield">Ed Whitfield</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5756">Campaign</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/9505">Donations</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7305">Standards</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/14170">Plant</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/1976">emissions</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div></div></div>Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:00:00 +0000Farron Cousins7574 at http://desmogblog.comObama's War On Coal Doesn’t Exist…Says Coal Lobby?http://desmogblog.com/2013/07/03/war-coal-doesn-t-exist-says-coal-lobby
<div class="field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/blog_teaser/public/blogimages/stop-war-on-coal-fire-obama.jpg?itok=8cl-3R6j" width="200" height="172" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>During the run-up to the 2012 <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Presidential Election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/24/902851/romneys-war-on-coal-ad-features-miners-who-were-forced-to-attend-his-rally/">ran ads and the party adopted as a platform</a> the “war on coal” being waged by President Barack Obama. While the platform failed when it came to securing votes for the Republican Party, it hasn’t stopped the <span class="caps">GOP</span> from <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/308409-obamas-energy-chief-rebuts-war-on-coal-claim">re-launching the same talking points</a> in the wake of President Obama’s recent climate change action speech.</p>
<p>Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner was one of the first to voice his concerns for the coal industry, saying that the President’s plan to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants would have a devastating impact on <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/john-boehner-climate-change-obamacare-93110.html">employment and the industry itself</a>. </p>
<p>Boehner has fallen into the “those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it” trap. As it turns out, the coal industry and their lobbying groups have already admitted that the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/war-on-coal-campaign-failure_n_3422524.html?utm_hp_ref=green&amp;ir=Green">2012 “war on coal” talking point was an abject failure</a>.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the National Mining Association recently lamented the following in the industry publication “Coal Age” (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/war-on-coal-campaign-failure_n_3422524.html?utm_hp_ref=green&amp;ir=Green">courtesy of The Huffington Post</a>):</p>
<p style="margin-left:.5in;">Anyway, <strong>‘war on coal’ never resonated with much conviction among ordinary Americans. For them, the <span class="caps">EPA</span> keeps the air and water clean, their kids safe</strong>. The Appalachian permits the <span class="caps">EPA</span> held up, the Spruce Mine permit the agency yanked, the regulatory standard it proposed to slow greenhouse gas emissions and stop new coal plant construction – all that flew over the head of most voters who, let’s face it, know far more about the Kardashians than they do about coal.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/war-on-coal-campaign-failure_n_3422524.html?utm_hp_ref=green&amp;ir=Green">HuffPost goes on to note</a> that the “war on coal” never really ended for the Republican Party:</p>
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<p style="margin-left:.5in;">Throughout last year's campaign, the coal industry inundated voters with advertisements claiming that the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency were strangling coal mines and killing jobs through needless regulation. In fact, the “War on Coal” campaign has lived well beyond the 2012 election; billboards in coal country still accuse the administration of creating a “No Jobs Zone” through environmental oversight.</p>
<p>But the mere fact that the talking point failed to resonate with the American public is just an amusing anecdote. <br /><br />
The real problem facing the Republican Party’s mantra today is that <strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/28/republicans-war-on-coal-_n_3516724.html?utm_hp_ref=green&amp;ir=Green">the coal industry itself says that there is no war on coal</a></strong>, and they are behind the President’s plan, albeit with slight reluctance, to reduce carbon emissions from plants and invest more money into so-called “clean coal” technology. Keep in mind, this is the same industry that is <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=E1210">giving millions of dollars</a> to keep Republicans in office.</p>
<p>The coal industry understands things that people like John Boehner are trying to ignore. Specifically, that they have a friend in Obama’s cabinet – Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who, as <a href="http://desmogblog.com/2013/06/28/obama-s-energy-czar-continues-back-dubious-coal-technology-part-climate-strategy">DeSmogBlog’s Sharon Kelly noted recently</a>, has long been in favor of coal-powered electricity.</p>
<p>As if friends in high places weren’t enough, the industry is <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/308409-obamas-energy-chief-rebuts-war-on-coal-claim">also salivating over the $8 billion</a> that the administration is ready to hand over to help coal companies purchase and install carbon capture and sequestration systems (to date, a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/26/obama-s-faith-carbon-capture-technicolor-dream">pie-in-the-sky and costly endeavor</a>).</p>
<p>The industry is also aware that the majority of <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/04/1538661/new-poll-finds-overwhelming-support-for-a-carbon-tax-over-spending-cuts-for-deficit-reduction/">Americans favor ideas such as a carbon tax</a>, so things could be worse for them right now. They also know that <a href="http://www.ceres.org/press/press-releases/wide-ranging-businesses-support-president-obama2019s-climate-plan">many other business groups</a> are jumping on board with the plan (which again is supported by a majority) and the bandwagon effect can be pretty difficult to fight in American politics.</p>
<p>Even with their past failures, and the coal industry’s acceptance of the President’s plan, it seems unlikely that the Republican Party will lay the “war on coal” talking point to rest. <br /><br />
It will just become another failed motif like their attempts to <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/another-industry-talking-point-laid-rest-oil-production-soars-gas-prices-remain-high">blame Obama for gas prices</a> or their favorite claim of “<a href="http://desmogblog.com/death-talking-point-regulations-actually-create-jobs">job killing regulations</a>.”</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/662">coal</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5692">Industry</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/2702">obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4170">John Boehner</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/4103">republican party</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/7200">Talking Point</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/5445">election</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/13063">Speech</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6406">Carbon</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/12247">Ernest Moniz</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/directory/vocabulary/6445">regulations</a></div></div></div>Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:00:51 +0000Farron Cousins7296 at http://desmogblog.com